Memory, affect, and learning

• EMDR Mechanism by Gil Levin, 7/26/97
  
  

The clinical observations of EMDR treatment effects seem to dovetail with conjectures by van der Kolk and others regarding memory storage. That is, when a memory of a past event is functionally stored it is in declarative or narrative memory. If it is dysfunctionally stored it is in motoric memory and retains the physical sensations and high level of affect that was there at the time of the event. With EMDR, we see clients start at a high level of affect and physical sensations and after treatment that is no longer there, and learning has taken place.

Traumatic events can cause dysfunctional storage. However, I think trauma can be defined in a number of ways. We can say the *big T* trauma that a clinician needs to designate a diagnoses of PTSD (like a rape, kidnapping, combat) , or *small t* traumas which are the ubiquitous experiences which have a negative impact upon the self and psyche. If you bring up a memory of a childhood humiliation you may find that the emotions and physical reactions are still there. If so, I would consider them dysfunctionally stored in unprocessed form. That is the perceptions are unchanged since the time of the event and learning has not taken place. The unprocessed experience may be contributing to problems in the present that are related--such as difficulty with groups, relationships, learning, authority, etc.

I think affect and evolution theorists could contribute here regarding why certain experiences are ingrained and unchanged. It may be due to certain developomental windows. It may be due to the interaction of types of neurotransmitters and high arousal. We are biologically determined to respond in certain ways when danger and survival fears surface. It may be that experiences such as being humiliated in childhood are the evolutionary equivalent of being cut out of the herd. At any rate, if you bring those earlier experiences to mind and you get no negative physical reaction, but adaptive/adult related thoughts spontaneously emerge, then I would say the information is appropriately processed.

Why one experience is processed and not another, or why one person processes it and not another, may be due to earlier nurturance history that made the experience more tolerable, sufficient counterexamples, or biological determinants, or perhaps being comforted/calmed soon after the distress. Many maladaptive behaviors, negative beliefs, and attitudes that people carry around seem to be caused by these types of dysfunctionally stored events with affects that are easily triggered in the present. They do not have to be *big T* traumas to cause them, and the associations revealed during processing are fascinating to watch.

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